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Lydia Reeder

Biography

Lydia Reeder

Lydia Reeder’s research and writing brings to light the stories of little-known or forgotten pioneers in their professions and daily lives. Her first book, DUST BOWL GIRLS, was a Junior Library Guild Selection, a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award and the WILLA literary Award, and won the For the Love of the Game award from the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. A regional bestseller in Oklahoma and Colorado, it was named as a 2017 top nonfiction book by Amazon, Bustle, Romper and Bookbub, and optioned for film five times. A native of Oklahoma, Lydia now lives in Denver, CO.

Lydia Reeder

Books by Lydia Reeder

The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever
by Lydia Reeder - History, Nonfiction

After Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school, more women demanded a chance to study medicine. Barred entrance to universities like Harvard, women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. Their success spurred a chilling backlash from elite, white male physicians who were obsessed with eugenics and the propagation of the white race. Into the midst of this turmoil marched Mary Putnam Jacobi, the first woman to be accepted into the world-renowned Sorbonne medical school in Paris. As one of the best-educated doctors in the world, she returned to New York for the fight of her life. Aided by other prominent women physicians and suffragists, Jacobi conducted the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. The results of her studies shook the foundations of medical science and higher education.

Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory
by Lydia Reeder - History, Nonfiction, Sports

Traveling from farm to farm at the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. With passion for the sport and heartfelt loyalty to one another and their coach, the Cardinals won every game. For author Lydia Reeder, this is a family story: coach Babb is her great-uncle. When her grandmother handed her a folder that contained newspaper articles, letters and photographs of Sam and the Cardinals, she said, “You might want to tell their story someday.” Now, with extensive research and the gathered memories of the surviving Cardinals, she has.